Pakistan leads race to 'normalcy'

Islamabad: Pakistan ranked first with a staggering 97% level on the “normalcy index”, developed to quantify the return of pre-pandemic life by The Economist. 

The Economist has this month ranked Pakistan number one on a global ‘normalcy index' that measures countries’ progress in returning to pre-pandemic levels.

The ‘normalcy index’ tracks eight variables, including sports attendance, time at home, traffic congestion, retail footfall, office occupancy, flights, film box office and public transport, for 50 countries representing about 75 percent of global population and 90 percent of global GDP.  

The index will also track ongoing behaviour as new restrictions, setbacks or progress is made toward normalcy, factors that would impact levels of human activity. 

Pakistan ranked the first on the list. Nigeria ranked second with a level of 90 percent, followed by Britain, Germany and United States.

Total 50 countries are tracked on the list, which considers whether people are returning to work in offices, as well as travel numbers, attendance at sporting events and other factors to determine return to normalcy. 

Meanwhile, in a series of tweets, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Monday (today) said that Pakistan was in a far better position than rest of the world due to its effective handling of the COVID-19 which was also appreciated by the world community. 

Pak tops World normalcy index….shows our huge success fighting #Covid #Pandamic https://t.co/ycOju02qYE

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) November 8, 2021

On his official twitter handle, the minister said that political opponents were spreading lies in frustration and in this situation the PTI workers should play their role in bringing facts to the public knowledge.

The federal minister further said that Pakistan was not located on a separate planet and international prices of commodities had their impact here as well.

“It was a fact now that Pakistan’s industry had revived, construction sector was fully operational, agricultural economy was prosperous and IT exports had tripled,” he added.

The incomes of workers, farmers and people working in industrial sector had increased, Fawad said.

The minister hoped that in six to eight months prices of commodities in international market would return to normalcy which would have positive impact on Pakistan as well. 

 

حقیقت یہ ہے کہ آج پاکستان کی انڈسٹری بحال ہو چکی ہے، کنسٹرکشن سیکٹر پوری طرح فعال ہے، زرعی معیشت خوشحال ہے IT ایکسپورٹس میں تین گنا اضافہ ہوا ہے مزدور، کسان، انڈسٹری تمام کی آمدنیوں میں اضافہ ہوا ہے اور انشاللہ چھ سے آٹھ ماہ میں عالمی قیمتیں بھی نارمل ہونا شروع ہو جائینگی #PTI

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) November 8, 2021